Most Americans are a bunch of mindless zombies at work, poll says

Bored at work? Just go through the motions, like most Americans. (Photo via sunshinecity / Flickr)

Seventy percent of full-time Americans working stiffs have either mentally “checked out” at work or purposefully sabotage the company’s productivity.

Well, aren’t we a bunch of sad saps?

The latest count in an ongoing Gallup Poll classifies the 100 million people working full-time in the U.S. into three categories. First, there’s the “actively engaged”: 30 million of them. These folks love to go to work, actually do things to promote productivity and the mission of the organization and are probably a favorite among supervisors, to the envy of the next couple groups.

Next are the “not engaged,” the ones who trudge through the motions at work, but have clocked out emotionally. It’s not hard to sympathize with some among this number, given that so many people work in tedious dead-end jobs, forced to settle for some reason. Still, they show up, maybe fake a smile and take your order, held hostage by circumstance to never quit.

We then have 20 million of the “actively disengaged.” Have you seen the movie “Waiting…,” about a newly hire chain-eatery server’s first day on the job? The one with Ryan Reynolds as the guy who teaches the new kid how to disregard all the rules of the corporate handbook? Gallup says 20 million people act out their unhappiness on the job in a similar way, working against the company’s goals and dragging down coworkers along with them.

What’s interesting is that women tend to be more committed to work than men, despite being paid 77 to every dollar a man earns and losing out on some promotions because of gender bias. Thirty-three percent of women feel actively engaged in the workplace compared to only 28 percent of men.

“Female workers in the Gallup poll are no different from men, really,” Nanette Fondas writes in The Atlantic. “The gender gap in employee engagement has little to do with biology or sex roles. It’s more a lesson in organizational dynamics that applies to both female and male workers.”